If it’s connected to the internet, it’s vulnerable to cyberattacks. If that’s your computer, you probably have defences in place – but what about if it’s your fridge? Or TV, or even your children’s toys? The Internet of Things allows a revolutionary way of life, but security is lagging behind.

Adrian McEwen with cybersecurity experts Sadie Creese and Martyn Ruks explore what you need to know. This event will be chaired by technology and business writer, Martyn Perks.

Internet of Things technologies – fitness wristbands and smart watches – are moving health from the hospital to the home. But if your watch, thermostat and games console could manage your well-being, how would you feel about being constantly monitored?

Engineer Ian Craddock and social scientist Madeleine Murtagh delve into the technology and the ethics, and ask if this is a future of health we can live with. This event will be chaired by technology and business writer, Martyn Perks.

Debate chair. Designers and artists from around the world are more and more using digital fabrication as a way to develop and realise their work. This talk explores how the technology is evolving and poses questions like, ‘Who is demanding it?’, ‘Why Now?’, ‘What are the creative limitations?’ and finally… ‘What comes next?’

As contradictory as it sounds, some intranets, social platforms, knowledge exchanges and internal communities run the risk of being too successful. They're in danger of reaching a stage in their development where their size, success and growth can cause complacency.

From Google and Facebook to government surveillance, our data is being mined behind our backs. But should we be surprised? When the product is free, we should realize we (in the form our data) are the product. Is surrendering our personal data and privacy the price of entry to gain access to free content (freemium)? And if we’re doing nothing wrong, do we mind what others know about us? Or is ditching freemium for premium, paid-for-content the way to regain control over our data and our privacy? Given that all business is based on confidence, how can consumers and corporations forge trusting relationships in the networked society? Are ‘the crowds’ being empowered or not? What’s the future role of social media and old media? Or are both trust and privacy dead? Is that what we call the price of progress?

Over the past two or three years, the idea of 3D printing has gripped the imagination of everyone from creatives in design and IT through to wider industry and governments up to and including President Obama. At a time when many business innovations are based around how the product is packaged and sold to the customer, it is indeed refreshing to see a technology-led boost to how material things are made in the first place, potentially transforming the production of everything from children’s toys to cars and even guns. Some go so far as to proclaim that with ‘additive manufacturing’, we are on the cusp of a new industrial revolution, one that will restructure society, make the means of production more democratic and give the economy a much needed boost.Others are more sceptical – seeing additive manufacturing as just another (albeit still exciting) technique that adds to the multitude of existing manufacturing processes. So where we are with this technology, and does 3D printing really amount to an industrial revolution or is it just overblown hype?

With HM Treasury having recently set up a new body to oversee £350bn of infrastructure investment, are we about to see an explosion of large projects around the UK? Or can we expect large-scale infrastructure projects to be used as political footballs and kicked into touch by a government too wary to risk its reputation on implementing them? The proposed HS2 high-speed rail network has been written off by some even before the first rail sleeper is to be laid in 2017, and not only on anti-development grounds; some suggest the future is with driverless cars rather than rail. Meanwhile, Thames Water’s proposed £4.2bn super sewer, meant to replace the capital’s creaking Victorian sewerage system, faces strong local opposition because of fears about smells, expected congestion and economic effects.Of course, not everything ends up being tied up in bureaucratic wrangling, opposition and procedural delays. The massive re-development of the 2012 Olympic park area including its stadia and underground infrastructure was a success—perhaps spurred on by an immovable deadline. There continues to be a lot of energy put into high-speed broadband networks, including providing digital infrastructure for the largest cities in the UK, in the hope that it will help businesses grow faster and make them more efficient. London’s Crossrail, currently Europe’s largest infrastructure project, provides another example of how to deliver an ambitious construction project that will have a significant impact on the capital’s rail network when completed in 2018. But while the spotlight is on improving the nation’s rail network, perhaps the more pressing problem is how to update our roads – with or without driverless cars – not least because the majority of the economy relies heavily on road transportation. Past governments have all resisted large-scale investment in road-building programmes, not least because of environmentalist concerns about cars.Why do some projects succeed while others struggle to get started? Is the problem the lack of a political sponsor, able to conjure up the compelling vision necessary to inspire support and private investment? Are environmental issues and concerns taken too seriously, or is the problem a NIMBY attitude that ignores the bigger picture? Should more effort be spent in deregulation and easing up the planning process to encourage competition between construction providers? Or is there an unwillingness to tear down existing infrastructure because no-one wants to lose face over betting on untested new ideas?

Healthcare is an emotive issue. It consumes vast amounts of resources, and is crying out for new ideas that can improve access, services and treatments—especially given the demands of an ever-changing population. So: should design set about bringing advances in areas such as telehealth, the administration and packaging of drugs, and in the revival of R&D?

Or is design’s role better suited to highlighting ‘softer’, patient-centered issues, such as improving patient care, dignity and wellbeing, and providing patients with a greater say about how they are treated? Perhaps design should both help people more easily manage their health, and, through new advances in clinical innovation, also bring them greater freedom over their lives – not least, the freedom to stop worrying about their health.

Conveyning and introducing the strand of five debates. Is it game over for manufacturing in the developed economies or might America stage a comeback? Can there be a rebalancing of production to the west and consumption to the east? Will gas galore provide the cheap energy to fuel that possibility? Does design drive engineering or the other way round? Why do we suffer droughts in wet old Britain? And is file sharing just stealing?

Following the 2010 publication of BIG POTATOES we have focused our analysis and thinking on particular areas, creating workgroups, including on design, with the aim of drafting manifestos in each area.

This invite-only symposium is the first time the Design Manifesto will have had a public airing. Feedback and contribution from participants will be invaluable, helping shape its arguments in time for its launch on an unsuspecting world!

Product Design + Innovation, ExCel, London
Head-to-head debate with James Woudhuysen and Martyn Perks speaking against the motion; Clive Grinyer and Andrea Siodmok speaking for the motion. For all full review, read this article on the PDI website.

Now that many public sector bodies, charities and businesses are faced with the prospect of severe cutbacks in light of the government’s spending review, managers everywhere will be brainstorming to find their own ways of resolving the mess they’re in.

Last Month’s Media 140 London event looked at how brands can make the most out of social media. As Martyn Perks watched the tweeters steal the limelight from the speakers, he wondered how brands can avoid the same thing happening to them.

Everyone agrees healthcare needs to be improved, but can attempts to alter patients’ and staff’s behaviour succeed? And will focusing on patient satisfaction be enough to transform the NHS and wider healthcare provision?

Internet of Things technologies – fitness wristbands and smart watches – are moving health from the hospital to the home. But if your watch, thermostat and games console could manage your well-being, how would you feel about being constantly monitored?

Engineer Ian Craddock and social scientist Madeleine Murtagh delve into the technology and the ethics, and ask if this is a future of health we can live with. This event will be chaired by technology and business writer, Martyn Perks.

About me

I write and speak about design, technology, innovation and business change for publications including The Independent, Big Issue magazine, spiked, the Guardian, Blueprint and as a regular columnist for netimperative. Read all of my writing and books reviews.

I regularly organise, speak and chair debates across Europe including at the Design Council, London College of Fashion, colleges and universities across the UK, Battle of Ideas festival, in Norway and in America. See appearances for more details.